Sports Business

About 1,000 single-game seats will be available for Cavs' first two playoff games at The Q

LeBron James and the Cavs take a three-game NBA Finals winning streak into Thursday night's Game 1 against Steph Curry and the Warriors.

Single-game tickets for the Cavs' first two playoff games at Quicken Loans Arena will be available at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 12.

If you're hoping to score a pair, or six (the limit for each purchase), we'd recommend being on time.

A team source told us a "little over 1,000 total" tickets will be available for the first-come, first-served online sale.

To get in the running for seats to Games 1 and 2 of the first round, you'll need to be a Cavaliers Insider (a subscriber to the team's free e-newsletter) or a member of Wine & Gold Nation, the organization's official fan club. The latter also is the centerpiece of the Cavs' recently launched social network — the one they hope is "troll free."

If you're a member of one or both of the above clubs, you will be automatically registered. If not, you need to sign up to be an Insider or a member of WGN by Sunday at 11:59 a.m. (How's that for precise?) Those who are registered get the first crack at playoff tickets, and considering the amount available, we doubt the initial single-game sale will get past the first stage.

The Cavs say that as the playoffs progress, fans who aren't yet Insiders or WGN members must be signed up 48 hours in advance of Game 1 of each round if they want a chance at securing single-game seats in a particular series. If there are still single-game tickets remaining for Games 1 and 2 of Round 1 by noon on April 12, they will be made available for purchase at Cavs.com/tickets.

The Flash Seats marketplace opens that day.

The Cavs have four regular-season games remaining — home games against the Hawks (Friday night) and Raptors (April 12), sandwiched by road matchups against the Hawks (April 9) and Heat (April 10). Cleveland (51-27) needs to win two of the four to clinch homecourt advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs. Boston (50-29), which lost at Atlanta on Thursday night, still has a slim chance at the top seed in the East, but the Cavs own the tiebreaker.

If the postseason started today, the Cavs would face the Pacers (39-40) in the first round, but the race for the last four playoff spots in the East is a mess. The Hawks (40-38), Bucks (40-39), Bulls (39-40), Pacers and Heat (38-40) are separated by two games in the loss column entering the final six days of the regular season.

Considering LeBron James' teams are a combined 44-7 in the first round and have never lost an opening-round series, it probably doesn't matter anyway.

Tribe's TV ratings are in double digits

The Indians' 9-6 win over the Rangers on Wednesday drew another impressive rating on SportsTime Ohio — a 9.69. That was almost a couple points better than the rating for the Cavs' impressive rout of the Celtics at the same time on Fox Sports Ohio. The FSO broadcast generated a 7.88 rating.

The Cavs, however, had the larger combined audience in the Cleveland market, since the ESPN broadcast of the Celtics game posted a 4.22 rating in Northeast Ohio.

Still, the ratings numbers for both contests are terrific.

And the Tribe's TV stats are just as gaudy as the club's run total through three games.

The 9.69 STO rating on Wednesday was the worst of the three — undoubtedly because the Cavs were playing for the top seed in the East during the same time slot. But how's this for a difference ...

The ratings for the first three Tribe broadcasts of the season the last two years:

— Season opener: 10.19 in 2017, 8.71 in 2016

— Game 2: 11.49 in 2017, 7.29 in '16

— Game 3: 9.69 in '17, 3.63 in '16

The Indians' three-game average last year was in the 6.54 range, which is almost identical to the club's 6.5 ratings average for the season — a number that was the franchise's best in 11 years.

This season, the ratings average is almost 10.5.

It will be really interesting to see how the Tribe's TV numbers are affected by what we assume will be another lengthy Cavs playoff run.

LeBron loves Round 1

We're not going to guarantee that we're heading for Cavs-Warriors III (though we're feeling pretty good about the prospects).

We will go out on a limb, however, and say the Cavs won't face much of a challenge in the first round.

As we mentioned earlier, LeBron's teams are 44-7 in the first round, which covers 11 series victories. James' clubs haven't even lost a game in Round 1 since 2012, when the Heat needed five games to oust the Knicks.

Since 2009, James is a combined 32-3 in the first round, with five sweeps (2013-16, plus 2009) and three 4-1 victories (2010-12).

The only seasons in which LeBron's teams were taken to six games in a best-of-seven Round 1 were 2006 and '08.

Another random LeBron note: He's headed for his 10th consecutive first-team all-NBA selection. In a career full of ridiculous accomplishments, that might be the best.

You can follow me on Twitter for sports information and analysis, but not to yell at me if the Pacers beat the Cavs once in the first round.